Roon Radio - Can't play AAC streams - Playback was interupted because a track failed to load

BBC R2, tried 96kbps AAC but nothing, doesn’t connect, MP3 128kbps works fine however

Do you have iPlayer? If so, see if that works, since this uses the 320kHz AAC stream too. This is what Roon should be using:

http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_two.m3u8

pasted that link into my browser (chrome on windows 10) and it started VLC media player and works fine?

Can you confirm that the link in Roon is the same?

http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_two.m3u8

yes exactly the same here

Could it all be this?

AAC 320kbps
https://a.files.bbci.co.uk/media/live/manifesto/audio/simulcast/hls/uk/sbr_high/ak/bbc_radio_two.m3u8

… which just points at …

http://as-hls-uk-live.akamaized.net/pool_904/live/uk/bbc_radio_two/bbc_radio_two.isml/bbc_radio_two-audio%3d320000.norewind.m3u8

Thanks - I tried adding a manual radio station using the redirected URL you provided, but I get a “Roon could not find a radio station at this URL” message

Get the same message when I try to add a manual station with the original URL, and also when edited to remove the ‘s’ from ‘https’

As you say you are on a QNAP, and can’t play any aac files, I strongly suspect the codecs. Has anything changed recently?
This thread may help

@tahsu
What do you see if you type ffmpeg on your Ubuntu server?

ffmpeg seems to be missing now (I installed it a long time ago)? Would it have been removed/deleted as part of a roon update???

I don’t know, but re-install and see what happens…

Thanks Brian, that was it! Reinstalled FFMPEG and all good now…this is strange though as have been through many Roon server updates since originally installed FFMPEG and this has not happened before - what did I miss this time round???

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Lots of issues with the BBC feeds and a fix was supposed to fix it on the last release.

Yes! My BBC feeds have been relatively well behaved since I had the Openreach engineers out and also hard-wired my endpoints. However, this latest release has made everything worse! I’m absolutely staggered that Roon can’t sort this out when the BBC streams work PERFECTLY with every other flipping method.

I understand Roon are working on a fix but no timescales quoted.

I am on EE, and I believe they are owned by BT.

If I type ffmpeg I get

~$ ffmpeg
ffmpeg version 4.2.4-1ubuntu0.1 Copyright (c) 2000-2020 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 9 (Ubuntu 9.3.0-10ubuntu2)
configuration: --prefix=/usr --extra-version=1ubuntu0.1 --toolchain=hardened --libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --incdir=/usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu --arch=amd64 --enable-gpl --disable-stripping --enable-avresample --disable-filter=resample --enable-avisynth --enable-gnutls --enable-ladspa --enable-libaom --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libcdio --enable-libcodec2 --enable-libflite --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libjack --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libmysofa --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopenmpt --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-librsvg --enable-librubberband --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libssh --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx265 --enable-libxml2 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzmq --enable-libzvbi --enable-lv2 --enable-omx --enable-openal --enable-opencl --enable-opengl --enable-sdl2 --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libdrm --enable-libiec61883 --enable-nvenc --enable-chromaprint --enable-frei0r --enable-libx264 --enable-shared
libavutil 56. 31.100 / 56. 31.100
libavcodec 58. 54.100 / 58. 54.100
libavformat 58. 29.100 / 58. 29.100
libavdevice 58. 8.100 / 58. 8.100
libavfilter 7. 57.100 / 7. 57.100
libavresample 4. 0. 0 / 4. 0. 0
libswscale 5. 5.100 / 5. 5.100
libswresample 3. 5.100 / 3. 5.100
libpostproc 55. 5.100 / 55. 5.100

If I run sudo apt-get install ffmpeg I get the following

ffmpeg is already the newest version (7:4.2.4-1ubuntu0.1).

The station EasyRadio has a 320k aac stream - can you play that?

Can you play the BBC link that @Martin_Webster posted above in your browser or VLC?

Tried this, it wanted to download and open with VLC, but nothing actually played. But this is on my desktop and not the core.

Yes, this works via roon.

Nothing wrong with your codecs then.

It’s as if the BBC thinks you are offshore - but Roon shouldn’t present you with those high rate options if you are not in the UK.

a) are you using the database version of the BBC site, or your own?

b) and there is no VPN?

I think we’ll have to wait for @support.

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I’ve been playing BBC Radio 2 this morning, and the AAC 320 kbps stream continually stops, sometimes immediately, and sometimes after a few minutes. The MP3 stream is fine, and I’m currently using the AAC 128 kbps now without issue… no, spoke too soon, as that just dropped. Same with the 96 kbps stream.

Incidentally, Qobuz high-res streams without issue. So, I’m inclined to think there’s an issue with the BBC’s AAC streams.

I’m in the UK and using the database version of the site.